dia furnished so large a proportion of the emigrants or
exiles who, from the tenth century, went out of India westward, that
there is very little risk in assuming it as an hypothesis, at least, that
they formed the _Hauptstamm_ of the Gipsies of Europe. What other
elements entered into these, with whom we are all familiar, will be
considered presently. These Gipsies came from India, where caste is
established and callings are hereditary even among out-castes. It is not
assuming too much to suppose that, as they evinced a marked aptitude for
certain pursuits and an inveterate attachment to certain habits, their
ancestors had in these respects resembled them for ages. These pursuits
and habits were, that:--They were tinkers, smiths, and farriers. They
dealt in horses, and were naturally familiar with them. They were
without religion. They were unscrupulous thieves. Their women were
fortune-tellers, especially by chiromancy. They ate without scruple
animals which had died a natural death, being especially fond of the pig,
which, when it has thus been 'butchered by God,' is still regarded even
by the most prosperous Gipsies in England as a delicacy. They flayed
animals, carried corpses, and showed such aptness for these and similar
detested callings that in several European countries they long
monopolised them. They made and sold mats, baskets, and small articles
of wood. They have shown great skill as dancers, musicians, singers,
acrobats; and it is a rule almost without exception that there is hardly
a travelling company of such performers, or a theatre in Europe or
America, in which there is not at least one person with some Romany
blood. Their hair remains black to advanced age, and they retain it
longer than do Europeans or ordinary Orientals. They speak an Aryan
tongue, which agrees in the main with that of the Jats, but which
contains words gathered from other Indian sources. Admitting these as
the peculiar pursuits of the race, the next step should be to consider
what are the principal nomadic tribes of Gipsies in India and Persia, and
how far their occupations agree with those of the Romany of Europe. That
the Jats probably supplied the main stock has been admitted. This was a
bold race of North-Western India which at one time had such power as to
obtain important victories over the caliphs. They were broken and
dispersed in the eleventh century by Mahmoud, many thousands of them
wandering to the We